such miserable interrogatory as What is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards-but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart-Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable! ANDREWS NORTON, 1786-1853. REV. ANDREWS NORTON, D. D., was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on the 31st of December, 1786, and graduated at Harvard College in 1804. He studied theology, but never became a settled clergyman; and in 1809 he was elected tutor in Bowdoin College, which situation he held for two years. In 1811, he was appointed tutor and librarian in Harvard; and, in 1813, he succeeded Rev. Dr. Channing as biblical lecturer. Upon the organization of the theological department, in 1819, he was appointed "Dexter Professor of Sacred Literature," which situation he held till 1830, when he was compelled to resign it from ill health. He continued to reside in Cambridge till his death, which took place on the 18th of September, 1853. Dr. Norton was married, in 1821, to Miss Catharine Eliot, daughter of Samuel Eliot, Esq., of Boston. Dr. Norton was a profound and accurate scholar, an eminent theologian, and for talent, acquirements, and influence, one of the first men in New England. He wrote occasionally for the literary and theological journals published in his vicinity, and is the author of several theological works. His greatest and most matured work is on the "Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," the first volume of which appeared in 1837, and the second and third in 1844. He also published "A Statement of Reasons for not believing the Doctrine of Trinitarians concerning the Nature of God and the Person of Christ," and some other religious tracts of a controversial nature. His contributions to the literary and religious journals of his time, though not numerous, were of a very able character. He was the editor of the "General Repository and Review," which was published in Cambridge, and was continued for three years, from 1812. To the new series of the "Christian Disciple," which began in 1819, he contributed many valuable papers; in the early volumes of the "Christian Examiner," the articles on the "Poetry of Mrs. Hemans," on "Pollok's Course of Time," on the "Future Life of the Good," and on the "Punishment of Sin ;" and in the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes, a series of articles on the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the "North American Review," his most noticeable articles are those on "Franklin," in September, 1818; on "Byron," in October, 1825; on Rev. William Ware's "Letters from Palmyra," in October, 1837; and a Memoir of Mrs. Grant of Laggan, in January, 1845. He has also written some verses of a devotional cast, of great beauty and sweetness. "Mr. Norton's writings are all impressed with the same stronglymarked qualities, bearing the image of the man; the same calm but deep tone of religious feeling; the same exalted seriousness of view, as that of man in sight of God and on the borders of eternity; the same high moral standard, the same transparent clearness of statement; the same logical closeness of reasoning; the same quiet earnestness of conviction; the same sustained confidence in his conclusions, resting as they did, or as he meant they should, on solid grounds and fully examined premises; the same minute accuracy and finish; the same strict truthfulness and sincerity, saying nothing for mere effect. And the style is in harmony with the thought-pure, chaste, lucid, aptly expressive, unaffected, uninvolved, English undefiled; scholarly, yet never pedantic, strong, yet not hard or dry; and, when the subject naturally called for it, clothing itself in the rich hues and the beautiful forms of poetic fancy, that illumined, while it adorned, his thought." POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE OF THE WISE AND GOOD. The relations between man and man cease not with life. The dead leave behind them their memory, their example, and the effects of their actions. Their influence still abides with us. Their names and characters dwell in our thoughts and hearts. We live and commune with them in their writings. We enjoy the benefit of their labors. Our institutions have been founded by them. We are surrounded by the works of the dead. Our knowledge and our arts are the fruit of their toil. Our minds have been formed by their instructions. We are most intimately connected with them by a thousand de 'Christian Examiner, November, 1853. pendencies. Those whom we have loved in life are still objects of our deepest and holiest affections. Their power over us remains. They are with us in our solitary walks; and their voices speak to our hearts in the silence of midnight. Their image is impressed upon our dearest recollections and our most sacred hopes. They form an essential part of our treasure laid up in heaven. For, above all, we are separated from them but for a little time. We are soon to be united with them. If we follow in the path of those we have loved, we too shall soon join the innumerable company of the spirits of just men made perfect. Our affections and our hopes are not buried in the dust, to which we commit the poor remains of mortality. The blessed retain their remembrance and their love for us in heaven; and we will cherish our remembrance and our love for them while on earth. Creatures of imitation and sympathy as we are, we look around us for support and countenance even in our virtues. We recur for them, most securely, to the examples of the dead. There is a degree of insecurity and uncertainty about living worth. The stamp has not yet been put upon it, which precludes all change, and seals it up as a just object of admiration for future times. There is no service which a man of commanding intellect can render his fellow-creatures better than that of leaving behind him an unspotted example. If he do not confer upon them this benefit; if he leave a character dark with vices in the sight of God, but dazzling with shining quali ties in the view of men, it may be that all his other services had better have been forborne, and he had passed inactive and unnoticed through life. It is a dictate of wisdom, therefore, as well as feeling, when a man, eminent for his virtues and talents, has been taken away, to collect the riches of his goodness and add them to the treasury of human improvement. The true Christian liveth not for himself, and dieth not for himself; and it is thus, in one respect, that he dieth not for himself. REFORMERS. It is delightful to remember that there have been men who, in the cause of truth and virtue, have made no compromises for their own advantage or safety; who have recognized "the hardest duty as the highest ;" who, conscious of the possession of great talents, have relinquished all the praise that was within their grasp, all the applause which they might have so liberally received, if they had not thrown themselves in opposition to the errors and vices of their fellow men, and have been content to take obloquy and insult instead; who have approached to lay on the altar of God "their last infirmity." They, without doubt, have felt that deep conviction of having acted right which supported the martyred philosopher of Athens, when he asked, "What disgrace is it to me if others are unable to judge of me, or to treat me as they ought?" There is something very solemn and sublime in the feeling produced by considering how differently these men have been estimated by their contemporaries, from the manner in which they are regarded by God. We perceive the appeal which lies from the ignorance, the folly, and the iniquity of man, to the throne of Eternal Justice. A storm of calumny and reviling has too often pursued them through life, and continued, when they could no longer feel it, to beat upon their graves. But it is no matter. They had gone where all who have suffered, and all who have triumphed in the same noble cause, receive their reward; and where the wreath of the martyr is more glorious than that of the conqueror. THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE GOOD. Rich and glorious as is the prospect of the happiness of the future life, it is still a prospect of such happiness as cannot be felt, unless we have prepared ourselves for its enjoyment. This preparation is the business of life; it is the purpose for which we are placed in this world. It consists in the faithful discharge of all our duties; in the improvement of our intellectual faculties, and our moral sensibility; in enlightening our minds by the study of our religion; in repressing our sensual appetites; in subduing our bad passions; in virtuous self-denial; in purity and temperance; in honesty and justice; in cultivating our social affections; in forming habits of benevolence; in regarding the happiness of others in all our conduct; in habitually considering how we may best employ our faculties, and our means of usefulness, for the good of our friends and our fellow-men; in viewing the common interest as our own; in constantly regarding ourselves as the children and the creatures of God; in looking up to him with resignation, gratitude, love, and reverence; and in making his will the rule of all conduct. Superstition and fanaticism may fancy that they have discovered some easier path to heaven, than that of a good life. It is a wretched, and most pitiable delusion. There is no other, and there can be none easier. We may entertain, likewise, very false notions of the nature of repentance. Repentance is something much more than mere sorrow for past sins. Mere sorrow for past sins, considered by itself, is without value or efficacy. True repentance is a change of character from bad to good. The sensualist must become pure and temperate; the selfish man must become generous and disinterested; the angry and malignant must become gentle and benevolent; the profane must become serious and devout. But changes of this sort are not, in the common course of events, to be effected in a day, or a month, or a year; far less in the few last days of a misspent life. No, it is impossible to form an unnatural union between vice and happiness. If we would attain the blessedness of heaven, we must pay the price of the purchase; we must become the servants of that master whose service is perfect freedom. It is by patient perseverance in well doing, that we may attain to glory, honor, and immortality. HYMN. My GoD, I thank thee! may no thought Thy mercy bids all nature bloom; The sun shines bright, and man is gay; Full many a throb of grief and pain Thy frail and erring child must know; Thy various messengers employ; And, mid the wreck of human joy, FORTITUDE. Faint not, poor traveller, though thy way |